Drier



Jan. 16, 1934. A Q MOE 159435874 DRIER iled Aug. s1, 1931 ti l@ IN VEN TOR.

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. ATT NEY tentent Jan. lid, ,ll

UNITED STA DRIER Andrew 0.Moe,l Toppenish, Wash., assigner to Food Machinery Corporation, San Jose, Calif., a corporation of Delaware ES PATENT OFFICE 'I'his invention relates to the art of drying fruit or the like and has particular reference to an improved type of apparatus suitable for this purpose.

Apparatus of such character heretofore utilized has ordinarily consisted of an endless conveyor over which some drying means is superposed, as for example, absorbent wipers or nozzles for directing a blast of air against the fruit resting on the conveyor. Such machines are necessarily of relatively large size, and great length, and require a large number of parts in their construction, with the result that they occupy much valuable space and are expensive to build and operate.

It is the general object of my invention to construct an apparatus for the purpose described which will be simplified in construction and occupy a relatively small amount of floor vspace, and which will effectively dry fruit or the like in a lesser period of time and with less handling than heretofore found necessary.

More specifically, it is an object of the invntion to provide a drying apparatus including a series of closely spaced rotatable supporting elements such as rollers or the like for supporting and rolling the articles to be dried as they pass through the apparatus, the supporting elements being provided with absorbent surfaces so that as the surfaces of the wet articles come in contact therewith the moisture is absorbed and the articles are thereby dried.

A further object is to provide in such an ap- .paratus an effective means for expressing the absorbed moisture from the labsorbent supporting elements.

Another object is to provide an auxiliary drying apparatus above the absorbent supporting elements which may take the form, if desired, of adjustably mounted rotatable brushes.

With the above mentioned and other objects in view, the invention consists in ,the novel construction and combination of parts hereinafter described, illustrated in the accompanying drawing, and set forth in the claims hereto appended it being understood that various changes and modications may be resorted to without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention, and I deem myself entitled to all such changesand modifications as fall within the scope of the claims hereto appended. It will also be understood that while the invention is described in connection with the drying of fruit, it is not so limited but may be used to dry other articles as well, and he fruit as used herein is intended to .-.Mide :nach other arties.

Referring to the drawing, wherein like reference characters denote like parts throughout the several views:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a preferred form of apparatus constructed according to the inven- 30 tion, some of the parts being broken away to better illustrate certain details of construction.

Figure 2 is a plan view of the apparatus illustrated in Figure l with the dust box removed.

Figure 3 is an enlarged sectional view of one 65 of the slats used to form a support for the working run of the conveyor.

Figure 4 is an enlarged sectional view of one of the conveyor rollers.

The apparatus illustrated comprises a frame 1 70 mounted on suitable legs 2 and supporting revoluble parallel shafts 3, each of which is provided with a pair of spaced sprockets 4. Endless carrier chains 5 pass around the sprockets 4 and are provided at spaced intervals with oppositely disposed pins 6 upon which are mounted aplurality of transversely disposed conveying rollers '7, thus providing an endless conveyor for supporting articles to be dried, and for advancing them through the apparatus. The rollers are slightly spaced from each other so that they may be rotated, the width of spacing being determined by the size of articles to be handled. The conveyor may be driven by a pulley 8 keyed to one of the shafts 3 and driven from any suitable source of g5 power. Parallel side Walls 9 are provided to prevent articles from rolling off the conveyor.

The conveyor construction thus far described is well known in the art, but whereas heretofore such conveyors have been utilized solely to convey articles through the machine, I have so constructed them that they also serve as a drying means for the articles to be dried. To this end, ln an apparatus embodying my invention, the rollers, which may be formed of any suitable material, are covered with an absorbent material 10 such as felt or absorbent toweling. Where a material such as felt is used, which is likely to be scuifed during use, it is'preferably protected by a covering of thin, porous material 11,asuch as loosely woven canvas, or other net-like material.

In the construction illustrated the upper run of the conveyor is the Working run, that is to say,

.the run which carries the articles to be dried.

This run of the conveyor is supported by a series of spaced slats 12 which are diagonally disposed with respect to the conveyor rollers in order to minimize vibration, and this slatted ilooring not only serves to cause rotation of the rollers as they trai/ei thereover, prevents ci? the ccnil@ 2 :ip/raam Veyor run, but as will presently be seen, they also serve as a means for expressing moisture from the absorbent coverings of the rollers.

Although the slats 12 may be plain surfaced, it has been found that best results are obtained if their supporting surfaces are also covered with an absorbent material similar to that provided on the rollers 7. The absorbent surfaces of the slats thus cooperate with the absorbent roller surfaces so that a considerable proportion of moisture absorbed by the rollers is transferred to the slat surfaces, due to the weight of the conveyor and the articles thereon exerting a squeezing or wringing action on the cooperating absorbent surfaces. This wringing effect also forces the moisture on the slats towards their forward edges, from where it drips or falls into any suitable drip pan such as 30.

Disposed immediately above the upper or working run of the conveyor are a plurality of rotary brushes 13, carried on shafts 14 extending transversely of the machine and journaled in the frame 15. One end of each shaft carries a sprocket wheel 16, and an endless chain 17 driven from any suitable source drives all the sprockets so that the brushes 13 are all revolved in the same direction, as indicated by the arrows, and at the same speed. Idler sprockets 18 are revolubly mounted on the side of-the frame 15 and serve to insure proper driving contact between the chain 1'] and the sprockets 16.

In order to prevent the brushes from throwing dust or other residue into the air, an inverted box having sides 19 and top 20 is disposed over the brushes and supported by uprights 21 rising from the frame 15.

The brushes 13 are adapted to contact with fruit resting on the conveyor, thereby forming an auxiliary drying means, and the frictional contact of the brushes also imparts a polish to the fruit. The working run of the conveyor is set on an incline so that the brushes will not urge the fruit through the machine at a lgreater speed than that of the conveyor.

It is desirable that the brushes be mounted for vertical adjustment so that they can be adjusted from time to time to accommodate various sizes of fruit. To provide for this adjustability, the frame 15 is supported by depending projections 22 pivotally carried by the bell cranks 23 which are journaled on pins 24 projecting from the side walls 9, and actuated by rods 25. The rods` 25 are provided with elongated slots 26 through which project threaded bolts 27 and the rods may be fixed in any position by screwing down the wing nuts 28 on the bolts 27.

In operation, the conveyor and brushes are driven in the directions indicated by the arrows, and fruit or other articles to be dried are deposited on the conveyor at its lowermost point. As the pieces of wet fruit are carried along by the conveyor the rollers are caused to revolve due to frictional contact with the slatted ooring, whereby the fruit is continuously rolled about so that all its surfaces come into contact with the absorbent surfaces of the rollers, whereby the moisture is absorbed and the fruit dried. Simultaneously an auxiliary drying action is exerted on the fruit both by reason of the frica tional contact with the revolving brushes. As heretofore pointed out, the brushes may be adjusted toward and away from the conveyor to accommodate the size of fruit being dried. As the conveyor rollers advance over the slats 12 their weight plus the weight of the fruit thereon causes the absorbent surfaces of the rollers to be squeezed, thus expressing the moisture therefrom, which is absorbed by the absorbent surfaces of theslats or falls away. This wringing or squeezing effect also forces the moisture on the slats towards their forward edges from where it drips away. In this manner the liquid is continuously removed from the absorbent surfaces of both the rollers and the slats whereby their absorptive capacity is kept at a maximum. 'I'he dried fruit is finally discharged from the conveyor over the discharge ramp 29.

Having now described my invention and in what manner the same may be used, what I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. In a drier, and endless conveyor comprising a plurality of transversely disposed absorbent surfaced rollers, and a plurality'of diagonally arranged supporting slats for supporting the 

